One of the key considerations is that we want to allow visitors to see as many of the artworks as possible by daylight—the galleries have ceiling louvers that can be open or closed—but we need to keep light-sensitive works on paper (drawings, prints, pastels) out of the daylight. It also turns out that some of the Francis Bacon works have bare exposed canvas that is light sensitive.
Most of the walls rendered in the model are structural and can’t be moved, but within the two principal spaces in our upstairs Exhibitions Pavilion (which we call the “cube” and the “rectangle”) we can distribute a selection of temporary walls of varying heights and widths. The two spaces are linked by the room known as the “oculus,” which is where we’ve put the works on paper. We haven’t taken account of the wall colors in the model (though I guess one could); in the exhibition the spaces will be two shades of gray and the oculus a beautiful dark blue.
I know that my four-year-old would have a lot of fun in the model, although our visitors might scratch their heads at some of the resulting displays. Come to think of it, maybe we should put a version of it in our Family Room.
We begin installing the exhibition this week, and from experience I know that there are always surprises when we see the real objects in the real spaces; adjustments will have to be made. I can’t wait to begin!